06 Limited Oil Change

[turbowanabe]

Hi All!
Doing my first oil change since I bought it and have a few questions.

What's the deal with the oil filter setup? Does the 3.5 take a regular canister filter, or a paper cartridge? Is the filter hard to get at?

How much oil does this motor actually hold? Owner's manual says 6.4 quarts???

Thanks in advance!

Joe

[tonystewart]

Paper cartridge

No

6 1/2 quarts

[inov8]

This pdf file will give you some tips:
members.cox.net/n0v8or/avalon_oil_change.pdf

It's OK to skip the steps that involve first draining the oil out of the canister, and proceed directly to remove the entire housing. Just be prepared for more oil spillage. I've done it both ways. If you opt not to pre-drain the canister housing, there is no need to remove/replace the smaller O-ring.

[turbowanabe]

Thanks!

[dwegelin]

Nice tutorial inov8.

I'd like to throw in a couple of comments to it. The filter housing should only be torqued to 25 N-m or 18 ft-lbf. And the cap on the housing should only be torqued to 13 N-m or 10 ft-lbf.

One thing I always do is pre-load the filter with some clean oil, just put enough in so it won't spill out the housing while your screwing it back on. That will pre-lube your filter.